> If you are looking to liquidate the company, then yes, the goal is to get cash when you can.
Not liquidate the company, raise money to fund user growth or tech development.
> But if you are looking to create a growth story to attract employees, partners, future investment, you may want people to think there is an upside to the stock.
In that case what matters is what happens over the next year, not what happens over the next week. If they fell to $20 this week and then stayed there for a month before gradually starting to go back up, all the better for future employees and investors who get to buy in at the lower price.
While you're right that long-term matters more, you have to think about the short term implications:
- People who joined late-stage, and that may have taken a lower salary for the upside once they IPO'd.
- Recruiting new people could be come a lot more difficult if the perception is that the stock is worth a lot less.
On top of that, after patiently waiting for years that an IPO is going to be when the fruits of their labor are reaped, but no actually it could be much later than that is not likely to help retention.
Not liquidate the company, raise money to fund user growth or tech development.
> But if you are looking to create a growth story to attract employees, partners, future investment, you may want people to think there is an upside to the stock.
In that case what matters is what happens over the next year, not what happens over the next week. If they fell to $20 this week and then stayed there for a month before gradually starting to go back up, all the better for future employees and investors who get to buy in at the lower price.